Corona Devotionals

The very last book of the Bible: Revelation. We can admit (confess!) that we cannot explain much of what we read in its verses. We don't fully understand, and we can't fully comprehend Revelation ...until the prophecies within it come to pass one day. We don't understand exactly who the great prostitute is ( Revelation 17:1 ). We cannot explain who the woman sitting on a scarlet beast that was covered with blasphemous names and had seven heads and ten horns is ( Revelation 17:1 ). We can agree with John, the author of Revelation , when he writes in Revelation 17:5 that the name written on her forehead was a mystery : babylon the great the mother of prostitutes and of the abominations of the earth . We definitely don't understand what most of that means. We are also probably not sure how to interpret or understand the beast on which the woman rides which has the seven heads and ten horns (Revelation 17:7) . We are not uneducated or ignorant, and yet we cannot fu...

 If we spend any amount of time outside the walls of our home, or even inside...but watching the news or scrolling online, we eventually sense the darkness that sin has draped over this world.  Pain, violence, sadness, sickness, disillusion, and even the blatant denial of God are realities not only in the world, but in people. Sometimes it is so heavy, we seek escape.  We seek a place of safety. On a busy downtown street recently, we passed a street vendor with wall art displayed.  Each of the paintings was wild with color and shaky in lines and design, so as to represent/replicate/remind the viewer of being under the influence of a substance while viewing the "art".   The (many!) paintings made me sad, and then mad.   And at the end of the display of paintings sat (what looked to be) a homeless man.  He chattered loudly to no one that I could see.  And when we passed his area, he looked straight at me and asked me if I was a bird? ...

Ouch!!  Did you feel that?  (Or... have we felt that?) ...That prick  of God's Word into our heart, or that stab  of Scripture into our soul?  It hurts .  But it is pain with a purpose... God's purpose , and while it can stretch us to follow the Lord's lead, it will bless us to obey God in what His Word is teaching us. For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.  ~Hebrews 4:12 Have we felt the sharpness  of the  word of God lately, pressing against our sinful ways?  God tells us that His word  is quick and powerful , but sometimes we are slow and resistant to obey it.   And sometimes it almost doesn't even seem like sin , but it is merely something that we are stuck in , or a prisoner to.  However, if we have felt the Lord convi...

                                             ...But I never saw the good side of the city 'Til I hitched a ride on a river boat queen Big wheel keep on turnin' Proud Mary keep on burnin' Rollin', rollin', rollin' on the river ~Proud Mary, Creedence Clearwater Revival You and I have the opportunity today to purchase space travel trips, for our own personal enjoyment. If we have the money, there are companies that provide commercial suborbital space tourism flights, allowing passengers to experience a few minutes of weightlessness and to view Earth from the edge of space.  If we have the means, it's also possible to a rrange private astronaut missions to the International Space Station via SpaceX transport. These fantastic and "futuristic" travel options and realities are all possible today! And yet.... While our ...

Why not?  (Us..and why not today?) What's stopping us?   Usually...it's us  stopping us.  But, how about if we don't let us stop us today, and how about if we ask  the Lord today.   ` And how about if we live joyfully  in His response today? God doesn't say don't ask for His blessing (whether we feel worthy of it or not.) In fact...get ready to be spiritually emboldened and empowered today: The Bible tells us to go for it  in terms of asking about God's blessings on the next generation, on  our barns to  be filled , on our flocks multiplying , and on our oxen  to be loaded down with produce. Of course most of us don't have barns, flocks, and oxen , but we do have  sons and daughters  of the next generation, and we have resources, accounts, nesteggs, and dreams that we try to build and fill and utilize to His glory. Go for it  today, and (the Bible says) go ahead and pray for it today. We (as devout and int...